Google ‘strongly disagrees’ with US DoJ’s lawsuit, files remedies proposal

Washington, Dec 23 Criticising the US Department of Justice (DoJ) lawsuit and its “overbroad proposal”, Google on Monday said that before it appeals in court, the company has filed its own remedies proposal, based on the actual findings in the court's decision.

Stressing that the company “strongly disagrees with and will appeal the decision in the DoJ search distribution lawsuit,” Lee-Anne Mulholland, Vice President, Regulatory Affairs at Google, said filing the remedies proposal “was a decision about our search distribution contracts, so our proposed remedies are directed to that”.

In its remedies proposal, Google said that browser companies like Apple and Mozilla should continue to have the freedom to do deals with whatever search engine they think is best for their users.

“The Court accepted that browser companies ‘occasionally assess Google’s search quality relative to its rivals and find Google’s to be superior.' And for companies like Mozilla, these contracts generate vital revenue,” said Mulholland in a company blog post.

“Our proposal allows browsers to continue to offer Google Search to their users and earn revenue from that partnership. But it also provides them with additional flexibility: It would allow for multiple default agreements across different platforms (e.g., a different default search engine for iPhones and iPads) and browsing modes, plus the ability to change their default search provider at least every 12 months (the court’s decision specifically referred to a 12-month agreement as “presumed reasonable” under antitrust law),” the company explained.

On Android contracts, the proposal means device makers have additional flexibility in preloading multiple search engines and preloading any Google app independently of preloading Search or Chrome.

“Again, this will give our partners additional flexibility and our rivals like Microsoft more chances to bid for placement,” said the tech giant.

The company further stated that its proposal includes a robust mechanism to ensure “we comply with the Court’s order without giving the government extensive power over the design of your online experience”.

Google said it does not propose these changes lightly.

“They would come at a cost to our partners by regulating how they must go about picking the best search engine for their customers. And they would impose burdensome restrictions and oversight over contracts that have reduced prices for devices and supported innovation in rival browsers, both of which have been good for consumers,” the company stated.

In October, the US DoJ and attorneys general (AGs) from every US state as well as the District of Columbia, Guam and Puerto Rico filed a proposed remedy framework in the federal antitrust lawsuit against Google. Most of the DoJ’s proposed remedial framework targets Google’s effects on the market for search distribution and revenue sharing.

According to Google, the bigger problem is that DoJ’s proposal would harm American consumers and undermine America’s global technology leadership at a critical juncture, “such as by requiring us to share people’s private search queries with foreign and domestic rivals, and restricting our ability to innovate and improve our products”.